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Greetings one and all, this will be the first of what I hope to be many posts and updates on my thesis. I would like to use this first post to introduce my topic, the area of interest, and the desired direction that I wish to take.
If you have given a look over of my site you will probably know that I am a design strategist by trade with a background in communications and arts and community engagement. I have been involved with a variety of creative startups and I have a love and fascination with being integrated into an entrepreneurial environment. There is simply something about the idea sharing and enthusiasm from which I derive a strong sense of place. I think it all stems from the infectious nature of these people.
Having spent much of my career in this area, it has simply become a part of me, which, in my opinion, is fruitful. Now, how about we start talking thesis topics? To further satiate that inner desire to work with entrepreneurs, I have set sail in that direction. My topic situates itself right at the heart of helping entrepreneurs succeed by asking how can design be utilized to better facilitate and incubate entrepreneurs and innovation? How can design be capitalized to develop frameworks and systems that build sustainable entrepreneurial communities and diverse economies?
With all that being said, my end goal is to operationalize a foundational process of developing startup incubators across different cities. It is also pertinent to point out that this area of focus is tied with a development project and case study in Savannah. While the thesis acts as a theoretical and operational guide, a team and I are actively working together to build and prototype an incubator organization within the community. Both the project and the paper will concentrate on the three core necessities for entrepreneurs: education, space, and funding. As time goes on I will define these further with related case studies to give emphasis.
So where do I currently stand with my paper? Well, that is a good question. Over the past few weeks I have been working to organize a variety of the secondary research that I have been compiling over the past year to form an annotated bibliography and lit review for the paper. This also includes identifying a research methodology to conduct in the field over the summer, interview and survey protocols, and timeline laying out the next year’s worth of research.
While I know that this post is a brief introduction to the topic, and in successive posts you will find more detailed research and information on where I am at and what I am doing. Over the coming weeks I will be outlining further what my secondary research covers, the development of a lit map, and how I hope to plan accordingly to defend in May of the coming year, 2014.
Cheers and stay in touch!